To add to what Grivous posted, this season had many cliffhanger endings- The pony of shadow. It could be just a Scooby Doo spoof, but it may be something significant later, since the castle is directly above the tree of harmony.- Fluttershy's fang.- The rainbow thread, and Rarity's rainbow glowing eyes.

And there's something in Rarity's song:

Generosity, you are the key

The rainbow thread was obtained by her display of generosity, so that may be one of the keys for the mysterious box.

The way it's set up may be that each of the mane 6 will face some kind of test, and receive some objects that will become the keys later. Currently we had one for Rarity, and one of the upcoming episode is a test of loyalty for Rainbow Dash, having to choose between Ponyville or Cloudsdale in the Equestria Games.

There was also the comic book that suddenly disappeared for no given reason at the end of the Power Pony episode. All of these cliffhanger eyecatchers must mean something if most every episode has one.

Please remember our spoiler rules--spoiler tag everything and link spoiler images until the Monday after the episode airs (as in, after the entire weekend has passed). Mostly talking about Grivous' post in the last page, but a few others haven't really been keeping up with this very well, either.

Grieffon wrote:To add to what Grivous posted, this season had many cliffhanger endings- The pony of shadow. It could be just a Scooby Doo spoof, but it may be something significant later, since the castle is directly above the tree of harmony.- Fluttershy's fang.- The rainbow thread, and Rarity's rainbow glowing eyes.

And there's something in Rarity's song:

Generosity, you are the key

The rainbow thread was obtained by her display of generosity, so that may be one of the keys for the mysterious box.

The way it's set up may be that each of the mane 6 will face some kind of test, and receive some objects that will become the keys later. Currently we had one for Rarity, and one of the upcoming episode is a test of loyalty for Rainbow Dash, having to choose between Ponyville or Cloudsdale in the Equestria Games.

You might be able to guess some of the others by now as well if that is correct

1. We know there is another AJ episode down the road, because of that song we got as a sneak preview. Maybe AJ will face some situation where lying or cheating would be to the advantage of Sweet Apple Acres or even apparantly essential to it's survival, and will have to face whether being honest is more important to her than her dream (as someone noted somewhere else, AJ is the only pony who actually seems to have achieved her goal in life; now all her energy has to be focused on KEEPING it.) Alternitively it could be the reverse, her having to learn when honesty is NOT the best policy (Remember RD's comment in this episode when AJ actually WAS honest to Rarity.)

2. Fluttershy still has the fang, so Flutterbat may be lurking inside her. Assuming it manifests itself again, maybe we will get into a more extreme version of the Iron Will incident, where Flutter suddenly finds that the bat side give her a level of POWER she never had and the ability to actually dominate others (I never thought of it till now, but in the hands of an evil person Fluttershy's stare would actually be a terryfying weapon, since it seems that there isn't anything capable of resisting it.) Her test may be driving the bat from herself without outside help this time, the ability to be kind even when giving the kindness up would finally get her free of her need to be afraid and passive.

3. Twilight's as we have seen is undergoing a physical metaporhosis far deeper than merely getting wings. At some point she may face the concept of no longer being able to relate to the other "normal" ponies because she is no longer sufficiently like them. In other words, she may discover that being an Alicorn sort of cuts you off from the other regular ponies (the sort of "madness of becoming a god" syndrome) And her test is figuring out how to use her magic to bridge this gap for good. Celestia already said that now Twilight would be teaching them as much as they were teaching her, maybe this is the real lesson she will teach. In fact, (were it not for the fact this would basically end the series) maybe Twilight is the Pony Redeemer, who will break the division and usher in a new age. To borrow Buddhist terms we already know she is one of the very few to make alicorn nirvana, maybe her destiny is to go bodhisattva and lead ALL OTHER PONIES to Alicornhood

4. Pinkie is hard I have no real guess

"For I have heard the Song of War, and to me, it sounds just like "Please, Mister Custer.""

Cogito Ergot Sum, "I think there is something wrong with this rye bread." (Aplogies to Seafrol.)

Actually, I can think of a super obvious one for Pinkie. Even though the song was mostly AJ and the Apples singing, Pinkie was there too for some reason, and then it got me thinking maybe they'll either visit the Pie family, or just bump into them. Either way, I think her family could pose for a really big step of growth for Pinkie, like them needing her back on the farm because of some accident and having to choose life of hard labor to support her family over the fun she's been having while living her dream of spreading joy.

When Luna and Celestia came to take the EoH, the Tree of harmony already had their CMs carved on it, as if it “knows” the destined users of the EoH. At the time, the mane 6 didn’t exist.

In the season premier, after the mane 6 returned the EoH to the Tree of Harmony, the EoH didn’t change back and instead remain the shape of the mane 6’s CMs, so perhaps they recognize the mane 6 as their wielders, just like how Luna and Celestia’s CMs were on the tree.

Celestia mentioned that the Tree of Harmony was meant to suppress something in the Everfree (this is before Discord dropped his seeds, and she didn’t know about the seeds anyway). The Tree was weakened to a point it couldn’t suppress anything anymore, so perhaps that thing already escaped, and that may be…

...the so-called Pony of Shadow, which appeared in the castle right above the Tree of Harmony, right after the events of the S4 premier. So something has to be done. What did the Tree do right after it got its power back?

It grew out a box, as if to offer to the mane 6.

Move forward to Power Ponies, it is strange that Spike got the enchanted comic without knowing what it does. Whoever lent it to him should tell him what it does, unless enchanted comics are not supposed to do that. And at the end, the comicbook vanished. The way it was focused on may suggest it's more significant than a comic. A test, perhaps.

The vampire fruit bats suddenly reappeared, even though they hadn’t been seen since Granny Smith were young. Why now? Perhaps it’s a setup by the tree to test Fluttershy. But then a magical accident happened, so no keys were given, but Fluttershy retained a bat trait. Why did the spell didn’t work completely? Is it the Tree's doing, as a preparation for another test some day? That official wanted poster hinted that Flutterbat may resurface, so it’s possible.

In RTM, Coco was impressed with Rarity’s display of generosity, and gave her a rainbow thread for a gift. But it seems to be more than an ordinary thread, perhaps it’s even the key to the magical locked box. A random pony shouldn’t have that, so one possibility is that Coco is the owner of the box. Based on what it did, the Tree of Harmony could be a sentient entity, and with such powerful magic, who say it can’t assume a pony form?

Here's the synopsis of 3 future episodes (not really that much spoilers, you would know what's the episode about 2 minutes in anyway.)

- Rainbow Falls: "As the Ponyville Relay Team prepares to compete at the upcoming Equestria Games trials, Rainbow Dash is excited to go with them until she receives an offer to join the ultra-competitive, and more prestigious, Cloudsdale Team."- Three's a Crowd: "Twilight is looking forward to some quality bonding time with Princess Cadance. But when a sick friend shows up needing Twilight's attention, it looks like her plans for a peaceful visit with her sister-in-law will have to be put on hold."- Pinkie Pride: "Pinkie Pie finds her status as 'super-duper party pony' in jeopardy when the mysterious Cheese Sandwich comes to town and offers to plan an epic party for Rainbow Dash."

That isn't much information, but I can make a few predictions that may link to my thoery: There’s nothing about anyone suddenly shows up yet, but “Rainbow Falls” sounds like a good test of loyalty for Rainbow Dash.

Next, in “Three’s a Crowd” a sick friend showed up, putting Twilight in a dilemma. Now, we don’t know who this sick friend is yet, so not much to say here, but he/she still seems to just appear, like the bats and Coco.

Finally, “the mysterious Cheese Sandwich” comes to town, again out of nowhere, putting Pinkie Pie in a challenge. The Tree at work again, perhaps?

All of those seemingly unrelated events may actually build a path to the season finale.

I know its not really pony news anymore, but Faust has recently released a nice little drawing of one of the fighters in the upcoming game that was once know as "Fighting is Magic" and Mane6 are doing a crowd funding thing that will hopefull help them work on the game full time: http://www.mane6.com/2014/01/2013-ungul ... lates.htmlI'm a bit of a fighting game fan so even though this won't be featuring as many ponies as intended, I'd still like to play a game all about cute and colorful characters beating the shit out of each other and anyways its only a matter of time after its released that someone mods the game so the ponies are playable again.

Anyways here's Faust's art work and I'm looking forward to seeing what the other characters look like:

Now back on topic with some pony art:I really hope we see more of this. We could always use more episodes of Fluttershy losing her mind.

One funny thing, given the way our world names translate to Equestrian, the chain is STILL probably called Starbucks (well, Starbuck, maybe).

Oh and I guess the theatre thing means that old AJ "Pone-Yat-Chee" gag I was working still makes sense (link for people who aren't old fogies like me and don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Image AJ singing a version of this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a3-q8MiuKQ)

"For I have heard the Song of War, and to me, it sounds just like "Please, Mister Custer.""

Cogito Ergot Sum, "I think there is something wrong with this rye bread." (Aplogies to Seafrol.)

I remember seeing that in your art thread Grivous. I couldn't think of anything interesting to say that others haven't already said about your work, but I thought it was a really cool picture then and I still think that now.

Soul, if realism (ironic as it sounds) is what you're looking for, then you really are in the wrong fandom. And Michael Bay ruined Transformers for me. Should have clinged more on the original box designs, you know?

*sigh*

Derp derp.

"Screw the social dogma of the intended demographic. If the show is for little girls then that makes me a bitch." - PanPizza